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HISTORY OF ASHRAM
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Lala Mukund Lal Ji Raees who donated half acre of land and it was run by Arya Samaj Temple. On 23 Dec1926 Swami Shradhanand Ji Maharaj was brutally murdered by Muslim fanatic. This Ashram was truly made by the inspiration of Swami Shradhanand Ji Maharaj. To pay homage to Swami Ji later the Ashram was converted to his memorial and renamed as Shri Shradhanand Bal Vanita Ashram from Arya Ananthalaya.
After some time the the word Ananthalaya(Orphanage) was also removed. Now the name was Shri Shradhanand Bal Vanita Ashram, this was an evidence where the children residing in Ashram denied from being ananth and adapted children as their own.
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BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
On 16 Oct 1929 on this donated land Mahatma Gandhi layed the foundation of this ashram. Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi used Silver made pointing trowel for laying foundation which is still safe in the ashram.
On 22 Feb 1930 land was registered in the name on ashram by donator. After completion of building on 1931 with the blessings of Rajshri Purushotam Das Tandon Ji children occupied the new premises.Not only land was donated by Lala Mukund Lal Ji Raees but he also constructed the building bearing all the expenses. Ashram also received donation of Rs.1125.00 from Lala Krishan Lal Shankar Lal Ji, Rs.1000 from Shri Baneky Lal Ji, Rs.1000.00 from Shrimati Barso Devi w/o Shri Rajaram , Rs.1000.00 from Shrimati Nihal Devi w/o Lal Munshi Ram, Rs.500.00 from Shrimati Kamla Devi W/o Shri Shiv Lal, Rs.500.00 from Shrimati Shankar Devi Rangi Lal Krishna Chand, Rs.500.00 from Shri Mathura Das Shiv Prasad Darshan Lal Chai Wale, Rs.700.00 from Lala Santram and Rs 125.00 from his sisters. Every citizen as their affordability and capability participated in this donation campaign. Babu Arya Kishore taking the responsibility of complete construction package erected the whole building.
EARLY DIFFICULTIES
We have seen children of orphanage begging either in Band Bazar, streets or colonies many times. Since last 82 years we haven’t noticed any child of this ashram begging on street or anywhere else. It is misinterpreted that ashram is blessed with excess of wealth reservoir. Till 1965 ashram lead a life in extreme poverty where it was very difficult to maintain livelihood. Sometimes there was shortage of wheat flour, sometime rice, sometimes fuel, always a question was there how to manage fodder for the ashram. All the workers of Arya Samaj were wandering on the street of Dehradun, Harbertpur-Badripur, Vikas Nagar (Churpur) and Mussoorie for help all the time. Even a single penny was important since Dayand raised a slogan that “no work is greater than serving humanity” and the Dhamawala Society adapted theses children as their own and hooded the responsibility of their livelihood. After years of sacrifices, hard and dedicated work ship Ashram stood by his feet, where it is run without any government fund. We thank all the citizens of Dehradun and appreciate for efforts that are for the great humanitarian reason.
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